Kazakh fairy tales for kids now available on world’s largest podcast platforms

22.05.2020 15:38

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Kazakh fairy tale stories for kids were added to the global podcasting platforms such as Apple Podcasts, Podcasts on Yandex Music and SoundCloud. Now people from around the world together with their children can listen to the Kazakh children’s books. The authors of this useful project are the Kazakh journalists - Angela Garipova, a famous blogger, and Aidana Karibzhanova, an editor of the Kazakh 24 TV channel. People can listen to the “Kazakh Fairy tales for kids” podcast absolutely for free.

“We came up with this idea during the coronavirus quarantine – we wanted to spend this time productively and be useful for people. I heard many people complaining that they have hard times coping with their children during the self-isolation regime. My colleague Aidana Karibzhanova supported my new idea. Then, the cultural worker Dinara Baibek helped us find the musicians. Via Instagram I found the artist who helped us with the visuals. Many people expressed their desire to do something useful and something that matters during the quarantine,” Garipova shared.

As it soon turned out, the Kazakh fairy tales gather audience not only in Kazakhstan, but in the neighboring countries as well. The project authors noticed that shorter audio stories are more popular. The project team recorded six stories already, including ‘Zhaksylyk pen zhamandyk’ (Good and evil), ‘Wise Aisulu. About love,’ ’40 fables,’ ‘Kustar nege soilemeidi?’ (Why can’t birds talk?), ‘Shoemaker and a Khan’, and ‘Kendebai on the horse called Kergula’. The team first started with the folk fairy tales, but in the future they plan to record the works of the modern authors as well. Currently, the audio stories are available in Russian and Kazakh languages.

“Before, the fairy tales could be found only on YouTube, but this is inconvenient for parents, because when the video is playing, they can’t do other tasks on their smartphones. In contrast, when the podcast is playing, a mom still can continue using her smartphone. We tried to pick out the kindest fairy tales,” Garipova notes.

This is a high-quality project. The enthusiasts used the professional narration and the dombra music to record the fairy tales. In addition, while listening to the fairy tale, people will hear the beautiful sounds of horses’ hooves, birds singing and the noise of ancient cities. The audio stories help listeners to completely immerse themselves into the corresponding atmosphere.

“Kazakh fairy tales can be interesting to children, because they are authentic and unique. The names of the stories’ characters are familiar to children, as well as phrases, native landscapes, steppes, horses and golden eagles. This is the part of our historical past, and I believe that the heart of every child will respond to these stories of the Great Steppe,” Garipova emphasizes.

She says that as soon as her team achieves the maximum quality of the stories read in Kazakh and Russian, they probably will start recording the fairy tales in other languages as well. It means that the creative legacy of the Kazakh people will become available worldwide and that the Kazakh fairy tale stories will be listened to in various world languages.